NDSU tops JMU in thriller for FCS title

FRISCO, Texas — This was a perfect ending for North Dakota State, with its redshirt freshman quarterback and a senior safety in his final game after first wanting to be a quarterback.

Trey Lance ran for 166 yards, including a clutch 44-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter, and James Hendricks had a game-clinching interception after an earlier scoring run on a fake field-goal attempt, giving the Bison a 28-20 victory against James Madison on Saturday for their eighth FCS national championship and the first 16-win season in any division since Yale in 1894.

“To go out on top as a senior is an incredible feeling,” said Hendricks, who was a third-string quarterback before moving to defense a sophomore in 2017. “That’s what I’ll remember. I just feel so fortunate.”

The Bison (16-0) stretched their FCSrecord winning streak to 37 while earning their record eighth championship, all in the last nine seasons. They also won five NCAA Division II titles from 1983-90.

After stopping Lance short on a fourthand-2 at its 36 with 2 minutes, 51 seconds left, James Madison (14-2) drove to the NDSU 3 before Hendricks picked off a Ben DiNucci pass at the goal line.

Hendricks said it was a play the Bison expected.

“I just left my guy and knew that they were going to throw it, and trusted that he was going to throw to the flat, and not the guy that I’m supposed to cover,” he said.

Lance’s 44-yard scramble touchdown came on third-and-23 to open the fourth quarter and put the Bison up 28-13. He dropped back to pass and found no one open, and when “the Red Sea just kind of parted,” he took off running to the end zone.